State Grid Zhejiang Lishui Power Supply Company: 'Power empowerment' revitalizes ancient villages

State Grid Zhejiang Lishui Power Supply Company personnel Luo Yongheng and workers inspected power lines in Xiazhang village, Longquan west street in Lishui city, Zhejiang province, on Aug 19, 2024. As they walked on the pebble stone road and looked at the ancient village, Luo felt the sky was looking much nicer without the tangle of wires.

Xiazhang village, known as "Yunwu ancient village" in history, has well-preserved ancient monuments from the Song Dynasty, ancient residential buildings from the Ming and Qing dynasties, with ancient roads paved with pebbles, and more than 20 famous ancient trees dating back more than 300 years.

With the change of time, the old houses are uninhabited and dilapidated. In recent years, Lishui city started to carry out the protection and restoration of old houses. Since most of the old houses are mainly civil structures, the aged wires are easy to catch fire, and the transformation of the power line has become an important part of the repair work. State Grid Zhejiang Lishui Power Supply Company focuses on the "old house rescue" action, integrating electric power elements into the protection of ancient villages and the rescue of old houses.

As the village started to attract investment, began developing Xiazhang tourism scenic spot and organized farmers to establish a tourism industry, State Grid Zhejiang Lishui Power Supply Company took the initiative to transform 1.3 kilometers of 10 kV line for Xiazhang village, built 2.3 kilometers of 0.4 kV cable into the village, transformed 0.93 kilometers lines for 56 households, and increased the capacity of a transformer from the original 50 kVA to 200 kVA.

"Gui Garden" is a B&B in the village, and Zheng Fuming, the owner of the B&B, feels deeply about the changes in electricity consumption after the electrification transformation. "In the past, if the neighbors were using high-power electrical appliances, I was unable to switch on my home air conditioning. Now, no matter how many tourists come, we can cope with it calmly," Zheng said.

The beautiful environment and the increasingly perfect infrastructure are attracting more and more tourists to Xiazhang village, and also to promote Xiazhang as a well-known ecotourism culture village. At present, the village has a total of 15 star-rated homestay (B&B) operators, over 2,000 meal seats, and more than 70 beds. In 2023, the village received more than 130,000 tourists, with total revenue of over 5 million yuan ($700,390).

The State Grid Zhejiang Lishui Power Supply Company actively helps the development of "ancient village + ecological boutique agriculture", "ancient village + cultural creativity", "ancient village + art", "ancient village + characteristic homestays" and other new business forms. It also helps 198 traditional villages and 311 historical and cultural villages in Lishui city to develop primary, secondary and tertiary industries.

In the next stage, the State Grid Zhejiang Lishui Power Supply Company will revitalize the traditional ancient villages in the mountains through electric landscape integration, all-electric homestay, tracking services and other measures, revival ancient villages, and open up a new road for rural revitalization.